


The start of it all

by yunhaiiro



Series: DA Shared Universe [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 15:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4227588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunhaiiro/pseuds/yunhaiiro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Blight has come. The Grey Wardens must leap into action. The newest recruits gather at Ostagar. One, the sole survivor of the attack on the Cousland family. Another, a Dalish elf already tainted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The start of it all

Duncan comes back from Highever with a young woman on tow.

She looks tired and miserable, like most people that come through the Ostagar fortress' gates. But still, she is keeping her composure. King Cailan is standing at the entrance, offering a royal welcome, and even Duncan looks surprised at how warmly he speaks to her. The King chats with her, then looks concerned, then clasps her hand and seemingly apologizes.

She's someone important, no doubt about it.

Unlike him.

Kwerkus Mahariel looks on on the scene from high up in the battlements, in a cracked wall no one approaches if they can avoid it. An unlucky (and clumsy) soldier had already plummeted to her death a few days ago.

But he's perched on it with the surety of a bird of prey and scans the expanse of visible ground with the same intensity.

He likes the solitude. He hadn't had a royal welcome, at least not one that had been waiting for him: the King had, on hindsight, obviously been expecting this young woman, on that day Duncan had brought Kwerkus along. After passing through the Brecilian Forest on his way to Highever and offering him a way to survive the taint that was already coursing through his blood.

He looks at his bare arms. Some veins are already swollen, seemingly wanting to jump out of him, churning blood sickeningly dark.

He takes the cape around his shoulders and buries himself on it.

Down, the King has left already and Duncan is talking with the woman. Kwerkus notices a mabari standing alert right next to her.

The woman nods, Duncan leaves, and the second he's out of sight she visibly sags and lets out a big sigh. The dog nuzzles her hand and whines and she pats his head while wearing a sad smile.

Then she follows in Duncan's footsteps, entering the fortress.

 

* * *

 

 

Kwerkus has been avoiding the soldiers' camp for as long as he's been in Ostagar. There are just... too many humans. Many of them convinced he was a servant shirking on his duties. (He had tried to talk with some of the actual elven servants. They had shooed him away, whispering urgently that they couldn't be seen talking when they still had work to do. Kwerkus had never felt so furious in his life.)

An old woman had talked to him, polite as can be, but had cut their conversation short when she had seen a soldier with half of his face covered in bandages and had gone to help him.  


So he had decided to ignore Duncan's advice of talking to the rest of the Grey Warden recruits (all humans, too. He had checked) and had even refused to meet his senior (But had seen him, from a convenient tree. Not entirely unpleasant to look at, but still completely the wrong thing. Wrong ears, wrong hair, wrong face. He thought of Tamlen, and he wanted to tear his heart out.).

And as such, when Duncan calls all the recruits to assemble, only he knows about Kwerkus.

And still, the elf waits until the last possible moment to show up, long cape covering him from neck (he had seen the veins there, in a mirror he had found. He smashed it on the ground and somehow didn't feel better for it) to toe.

There are surprised faces all around. Biggest one is on the other Warden (Alistair, was it?) who lets out a whistle.

"Well, that's new! We don't really get women, and now we have two!"

The looks of surprise give way to glances of confusion, while Duncan pinches the bridge of his nose.

Kwerkus refuses to show any emotion on his face besides mild irritation and doesn't bother to speak up. He's only half wrong, after all.

The (actual) woman interjects and asks him: "What's your name?"

"Kwerkus Mahariel."

"I'm Malia Cousland."

She has extended a hand, but he only stares at it. If he were to shake it, to get his hand and his arm out of the cape, everyone would see.

She retires it, not looking offended.

"You're not actually a woman, are you?"

"Not really."

And now Alistair looks mortified and is letting out a string of apologies. Kwerkus could reassure him, but instead just tunes him out at "your people are all pretty so I just...".

Duncan cuts him off and goes right to business. There's going to be a ritual, and they need darkspawn blood. A vial for each of them. One darkspawn, one vial. They are to venture into the woods (Kwerkus actually perks up at the prospect), and Alistair will accompany them.

And just like that, they are dismissed, and walking together towards the forest's entrance, and the humans soon enough start asking Kwerkus about him. About the Dalish.

Malia walks in a respectable silence at his side, and he likes her already.

Alistair is asking way too many things, but Kwerkus founds that he doesn't mind that much.

He hears names and introductions for the other two recruits, but forgets them as soon as they're said.

They enter the forest, and everyone looks wary and uneasy, but for him its almost like going home.

 

* * *

 

 

Malia takes charge soon enough, seeing as Alistair doesn't really seem to covet the position. And before stepping a foot further into the woods she turns and asks Kwerkus for help.

He blinks, surprised, but hunting instincts kick in in a second and he's pointing out prints and damage on the trees the next. He suggests being on the front row with Malia, because he can spot enemies faster than any of them and can hang back and snipe while the warriors advance on them. Malia listens to his plan and nods, calling it a good idea, and Kwerkus actually smiles at her.

A crooked smile, but still.

He unslings the bow from his back and nocks an arrow.

 

* * *

 

 

They find darkspawn. They kill them.

Most of them bleed out way too fast, and the only one in this group that hasn't won't hold out much longer.

Everyone's staring at it, looking unsure.

They've all heard the stories. You keep away from darkspawn, and specially darkspawn blood. Horrible things happen if you don't. There hasn't been a Blight in ages and so everyone's thinking that maybe it's all an exaggeration. But if it isn't? Who's brave enough to risk it?

Malia takes a breath and a step, before Kwerkus takes the vial right out of her hand.

"I'll do it."

He throws back the cape, shows his arms to her. Malia lets out a gasp.

"I'm already dying, anyway."

The other two recruits keep their distance after that. Kwerkus supposes he can't blame them, but he'd be lying if the frightened glances aren't making him fantasize about letting an arrow loose and graze the side of their heads, so they have an even better reason to fear him.

But they press on, they find more darkspawn, and they (he) fill the vials. On the way back, he finds a white flower he's heard the kennel's guard talk about. He's seen the wounded mabari, succumbing to the taint just as he is. He gathers all the flowers without a word.

The rest are watching him, but don't make a comment.

Kwerkus wonders, with a detached amusement, how many of his "odd" behaviours are they chalking up to him being Dalish.

 

* * *

 

 

They come back, and Duncan congratulates them, but tells them there's still the most important part of the ritual. The Joining. He won't tell them anything else, neither will Alistair, and they all get dismissed again until night.

Kwerkus would get suspicious about all the secrecy, but he is just so very tired.

He drops by the kennel and offers the flowers to a joyous carer, who tells him the mabari should be his now. Kwerkus doesn't refuse outright, and he pats the head of the quickly recovering dog, who lets out a feeble bark. But internally he thinks that, compared to the wolves he's summoned and who have sometimes kept him company for days, a trained hound would be too... civilized for him. Fereldans love their dogs. The carer can probably find a hundred soldiers in here who would give a leg to have one for themselves.

So he nods politely, and promises to come back to check on him (he will, just not on ground) and he turns to leave.

But he almost bumps into Malia, who is leaning on the fence, half of her body inside of the kennel and her feet two inches above ground, and baby-talking at another mabari, who's wagging his tail and running around the limited space.

She notices him and immediately puts her feet down, takes a step back from the fence and dusts the front of her armor while coughing a "you didn't just see that" cough.

Kwerkus lets it slip, even if he can't quite manage to keep the smirk out of his face.

"Your mabari, I take it?"

Malia nods and smiles at the dog, fondly. He realizes he hasn't seen her smile a real smile, something that wasn't a polite upquirk of the lips, not until now.

Then again, neither has he. Not even the polite kind. And he's been here longer.

Malia looks back at him and her smile falters a bit. She scratches a line in the fence with a fingernail and wonders, aloud, if the elven gentleman will be so kind as to sit with her for a while.

Kwerkus answers that he is hardly a gentleman but he will do as the lady requests.

They sit in companionable silence for a while. He can tell she's trying not to look at his arms, or at his neck.

He really can't blame her.

He holds a hand aloft, watching the veins contract and feeling almost like a fairytale monster.

He lets his hand fall back to his lap and starts talking.

"My story, if you want to hear it..."

"Only of you want to tell."

Kwerkus looks at her.

"I think I do."

Malia nods.

"We were out hunting in the forest one day..."

 

* * *

 

 

The Joining goes... bad.

Not terrible, because at least Malia and Kwerkus survive, even if they both go down like a puppet cut out of its strings. Duncan manages to catch Malia, and Alistair avoids having Kwerkus crack his head on the ground. Both of them stare as the darkened veins recede and smooth over, and Kwerkus feels like he could actually cry. Alistair is holding him in a one-armed hug, and when Kwerkus looks at him, he's smiling and looking almost as glad as the elf is, and suddenly he doesn't look so wrong.

He looks over at Malia, with her hair falling out of her braids, and she's looking at Duncan with a similar expression and he can't stop the snorting sound he makes at the stupidity of it all.

He calls her over.

"I hadn't noticed, but your hair is really nice."

She stares at him with round eyes before launching into a laughing fit. Duncan and Alistair look at each other and shrug their shoulders almost simultaneously.

Then, of course, the battle starts and everything goes to hell.

 


End file.
